Having started his international career at the age of 20, Sharma quickly came to be pegged by many analysts as a permanent fixture in the Indian cricket team in the next decade. He made his ODI debut on June 23, 2007 against Ireland. In 2013, he started playing as an opening batsman for India ODI team, and performed consistently. He scored consecutive centuries in his first two Test matches against the West Indies in November 2013, scoring 177 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on debut, followed by a score of 111* in the next Test at the Wankhede Stadium in India.[3][4] He played 108 ODIs before playing his maiden Test.

On 13 November 2014, Rohit Sharma scored 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, which is the highest individual score in ODIs. He thus became the only player in the world to score two double hundreds in ODIs. Rohit Sharma is the third skipper after MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir to lead his team to the IPL title twice. As per Forbes India 2015 Top 100 celebrities in India, Sharma is listed 8th in terms of fame, 46th in terms of income and 12th overall.[5]

Sharma was born on 30 April 1987 in Bansod, Nagpur, Maharashtra. His mother Purnima Sharma comes from Visakhapatnam.[6] His father Gurunath Sharma worked as a caretaker of a transport firm storehouse. Sharma was raised by his grandparents and uncles in Borivali because of his father's low income.[7] He would visit his parents, who lived in a single-room house in Dombivli,[8] only during weekends.[7] He has a younger brother, Vishal Sharma.[8]

Sharma joined a cricket camp in 1999 with his uncle's money. His coach at the camp was Dinesh Lad who asked him to change his school to Swami Vivekanand International School, where Lad was the coach and which had better cricket facilities. Sharma recollects, "I told him I couldn't afford it, but he got me a scholarship. So for four years I didn't pay a penny, and did well in my cricket."[7] Sharma started as an off spinner who could bat a bit, before Lad noticed Sharma's batting abilities and promoted him from number eight to open the innings. He excelled in the Harris and Giles Shield school cricket tournaments, scoring a century on debut as opener.[9]

Rohit Sharma made his List A debut for West Zone against Central Zone in the Deodhar Trophy in March 2005;, at Gwalior.[10] It was his unbeaten innings of 142 in 123 balls against North Zone at Udaipur in the same tournament,[11] that brought him into the limelight.[12] Performances for the India A sides in Abu Dhabi and Australia followed, leading to him being selected for the 30 member probables list for the Champions Trophy,[12] although he did not make the final squad. This was before he had made his Ranji Trophy debut.[12] He was also selected for the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy.

Sharma at fielding practice.

Sharma made his First-class debut for India A against New Zealand A, at Darwin in July 2006.[13] He made his Ranji Trophy debut for his First-class side Mumbai in the 2006/2007 season. Though he was unable to contribute much in the initial matches,[14] he scored 205 off 267 balls in the match against Gujarat.[14] Mumbai went on to win the tournament with Sharma scoring a half century in the final against Bengal.[15]

In October 2013, upon the retirement of Ajit Agarkar, and owing to a successful captaincy stint in the IPL for Mumbai Indians, where he helped to win the IPL as well as the Champions League T20, Sharma was appointed as the captain of the Mumbai Ranji team for the 2013–14 season.[citation needed]

Rohit Sharma eventually made his mark on the international stage on 20 September 2007, when he led India to victory by scoring an unbeaten 50 (which came off 40 deliveries) against South Africa in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.[17] The win reserved India a berth in the semifinals of the tournament. At one stage India were 61–4, but his partnership of 85 runs with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni helped India to post a total of 153/5.[17] He was eventually declared Man of the Match.[17] Sharma then proceeded to score 30 runs off 16 balls in the final against Pakistan.[18]

Rohit Sharma scored his maiden ODI half-century against Pakistan, at Jaipur on 18 November 2007.[19] and was selected as part of India's 16-man squad for the CB series in Australia.[20] Here, he scored 235 runs at an average of 33.57 with 2 fifties,[21] including his score of 66 in the 1st final at Sydney[22] partnering Sachin Tendulkar for most of India's successful run chase.

However, his ODI performances suffered a downturn after this and his middle-order position was taken over by Suresh Raina, and eventually, Virat Kohli took his position as the reserve batsman.[23]

In December 2009, he scored a triple century in the Ranji Trophy[24] and was recalled to the ODI team for the tri-nations tournament in Bangladesh as Tendulkar opted to rest in the series.[25] However, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina were selected ahead of him in the playing eleven, and he did not play in any of India's five matches.

Rohit Sharma was called to the Indian Test team in February 2010[citation needed] as the only reserve batsman. When V. V. S. Laxman failed to recover from an injury, Sharma was set to make his debut, but injured himself playing football in the warm-up on the first morning of the match. It was too late to bring in a replacement batsman, so the reserve wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha had to play as a specialist batsman. Since then Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli overtook him and made their Test debuts in the middle order.

He scored his maiden ODI century (114) against Zimbabwe on 28 May 2010. He followed it up with another century in the next match of the tri-series against Sri Lanka on 30 May 2010 by scoring 101 not out.[26][27]

In the ODI series that followed, he carried on with his good form. The first ODI was also played at Queen's Park Oval. Rohit was elected man of the match for his 68 not out of 75 balls with three fours and a six.[30] In the third ODI played at Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua; Sharma scored a matching-winning 86 of 91 balls. Rohit along with Harbhajan Singh got India out of trouble to win the match after they were reduced to 92 for 6.[31] He was widely appraised for his calm and matured performance. Sharma won his first Man of the Series award for excellent batting performance throughout the ODI series.[32] His good form continued as he bagged another Man of the series award against West Indies again but this time on Indian soil.[33] He was part of the squad selected to play in the Australian series.

In November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Test series, Sharma made his Test debut at Eden Gardens in Kolkata against the West Indies. He scored a 177 which was the second best score on debut by an Indian behind Shikhar Dhawan. Sharma became one of the few Indian players who scored a century on Test debut. He followed it up with an 111 not out at his home ground at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai becoming the third Indian cricketer to score back-to-back centuries in the first two tests—a feat which was achieved by Sourav Ganguly in 1996 in England and Mohammad Azharuddin in 1984 who scored centuries in his first three tests.

In 2014, he became the first person to score more than 250 runs in One-Day international cricket. He scored 264 against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. With this innings, he became the first player to score two double hundred in ODIs. His innings of 264 is the highest score by a batsman in an ODI, surpassing 219 by Virender Sehwag.[35][36][37]

On 2 October 2015, in South Africa's tour of India, Sharma scored 106 in the first T20I at HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala. With this feat, he became the second Indian cricketer to have scored centuries in all formats of the game. On 11 October, in the first ODI of the tour, he scored 150 off 133 balls, in a losing cause while chasing South Africa's total of 303.He also scored 2 back to back centuries in the ODI series in Australia with a 99 in the final match.[38]

Rohit Sharma is one of the most successful players in IPL and has the unique record of finishing the match by scoring a last-ball six. He has one IPL century and a hat-trick to his name. Sharma was signed up by the Deccan Chargers franchise for a sum of US$750,000 a year in 2008.[39] He was one of the leading run scorers in the 2008 IPL season with 404 runs at an average of 36.72.[40] He also held the coveted Orange Cap for a brief period.

In the 2009 IPL season he was appointed as the vice-captain of the Deccan Chargers. In a match against Kolkata Knight Riders where 21 was required off the last over, Sharma scored 26 off the over from Mashrafe Mortaza to seal a win. He was the fifth bowler to take an IPL hat-trick[41] and was awarded the best U-23 player of the tournament.

In the 2011 IPL auction, he was sold for US$ 2million to the Mumbai Indians.[42] He was later promoted as the permanent captain of the Mumbai Indians in the 2013 season as Ricky Ponting was benched due to poor form. Mumbai Indians under his captaincy won the IPL for the first time. It was a terrific season for him as a captain as he helped Mumbai Indians to win the IPL as well as the Champions League T20 in 2013.

Once again in 2015 he helped MI to win the IPL 8 title by beating Chennai with margin of 41 runs in final played on 24 May 2015. He played an unbeatable innings of 50 of 26 balls for the team to score a 202/5 and also won the Man of The Match award in the finals. He became only one of the captains who won the IPL trophy twice. He also became the second player after Yusuf Pathan to be a part of the playing XI that won the IPL title three times: once with the Deccan Chargers and twice as the skipper of the Mumbai Indians.

On 2 October 2015, Sharma became the second Indian to make a century in T20I cricket, thus becoming the highest scorer in a single T20I innings for India. He scored 106 off 66 balls. This record was broken when K. L. Rahul scored 110* against West Indies on August 27, 2016.[50] Sharma became the second Indian after Suresh Raina to have scored a century each in each of the three forms of International Cricket.

On 13 November 2014, Sharma became the highest individual ODI scorer with 264 runs against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He also became the only player to hit two double hundreds in ODI[35] cricket match

Sharma broke the record set by Shane Watson for Most runs from fours and sixes in an innings by scoring 186 runs.by boundaries[51]

With 33 fours, Sharma hit the most number of fours in an ODI innings.[52]

On 11 October 2015, he scored the 150 in Kanpur against South Africa making it the highest ODI score in Kanpur

On 12 January 2016, Sharma scored 171* against Australia in a one-day international between India and Australia at Perth. This is the highest score by a visiting batsman against Australia in Australia. The previous top score against Australia in Australia was Viv Richards' 153 not out at the MCG in 1979-80.[54]

^Cricinfo staff (25 December 2009). "Tendulkar opts out of Bangladesh tri-series". ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 2014-02-25. Rohit, 22, who was dropped from India's ODI squad after an extended run of disappointing scores in limited-overs cricket, last played in the West Indies in July and was pushed aside by Virat Kohli...